1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an improved method for making radiographs by direct radiographic panels.
More in particular, the method relates to a technique in which the communication between the direct radiographic panel, a mobile radiographic generator, a radiographic workstation, and a mobile apparatus operated by the radiographer is improved.
The major advantage of a method according to the invention is an enhanced operational convenience for the radiographer doing his round of patients for whom a radiograph is to be made.
2. Description of the Related Art
It is known that X-rays have important applications in the field of medical imaging in which the medical-diagnostic benefit for the patient mostly largely outweighs the small and limited risk of radiation damage.
Originally, mostly silver halide-based radiographic film was used as a registration medium for radiographic recording.
However, during the last decades, so-called computed radiography (CR) has increasingly gained interest. This technique uses a radiographic plate in which silver halide has been replaced as light-sensitive element by so-called storage phosphors.
This method is extensively described in, for example, the Handbook of Medical Imaging (ed. R. V. Matter et al., SPIE Press, Bellingham, 2000).
However, since a couple of years, direct digital radiographic techniques, known as DR (Direct Radiography), are increasingly used for radiographic recording.
This method is increasingly used as an alternative to film-based imaging techniques as well as to the above-mentioned panels based on stimulable phosphor or storage phosphor technologies.
In this direct digital radiography technique, the radiographic exposure energy is fixed pixel-wise in a radiographic sensitive panel and thereupon converted into electronic image data by electronic components. Subsequently, the information is read out image-wise and displayed on an appropriate monitor in order to allow a radiologist to make a diagnosis.
One of the driving forces behind the success of direct digital radiography is the ability to rapidly visualize the obtained radiographic images and to communicate them in a simple and efficient manner by data networks to one or more locations in order to be remotely analyzed and diagnosed by a radiologist or other medical expert. Thanks to this technique, the delays that typically occur in developing, packing and physically sending radiographic films, as well as the inconvenience related to scanning developed films and the corresponding loss of resolution, are avoided.
Direct radiographic (DR) systems have the advantage, compared to computer radiography (CR) systems based on storage or stimulable phosphors, that the latent stored radiographic image does not have to be read out (in a digitizer). On the contrary, the digital radiographic image can immediately or directly be read out in order to make the radiographic diagnosis. This diagnosis can then be carried out on a local workstation as well as on a very remotely located workstation.
Originally, the first direct radiographic panels were integrated into the complete radiographic imaging system. The wiring and cabling was then provided in a manner which minimizes the disturbance for the radiographer when putting in place the direct radiographic panel for recording a body part of the patient.
More recently, portable direct radiographic panels have been introduced into the market. These panels use built-in batteries and wireless communication with the radiographic control panel or workstation, as well as with the data storage device and display components.
Thanks to the last-mentioned aspects, such portable wireless panels can be used in a very flexible way and are very appropriate for use in a fully digital radiographic recording system.
They can be used in a hospital or a medical diagnostics centre as well as in a completely new installed radiographic imaging system, or in a so-called retrofit situation. The term “retrofit” is to be understood here as an existing radiographic imaging system which previously used radiographic films or stimulable or storage phosphor imaging plates and in which the latter recording devices are replaced by a direct radiographic storage medium, a so-called direct radiographic or DR panel, without, for example, the workstation or the radiography source itself having to be replaced.
The advantage of a retrofit radiography system, compared to a completely new installed direct radiography system, lies in its lower investment cost since part of the existing radiographic station can be kept.
Although portability and wireless communication of the radiographic storage medium are an obvious advantage when using portable and wireless DR panels, these features, however, also cause potential problems in practical conditions of use.
One of the problems encountered when using such panels, is the fact that, once the recording is finished, the stored radiographic image cannot, or only difficultly, be sent to the radiographic console due to transmission difficulties with the available wireless network.
A further drawback relates to the fact that when the radiographer does his round of the different patients for whom a radiograph is to be made at the healthcare institution, the radiographer does not have a complete job list of the radiographs to be made.
Thus, also in a situation in which, for example, the radiographic image is stored on the direct radiographic panel, the radiographer cannot proceed to the next recording until he has consulted said job list on the radiographic workstation that's is connected to the Hospital Information System (HIS) which comprises the Radiological Information System (RIS).
In U.S. Pat. No. 8,031,837 B2, published on Oct. 4, 2011, assigned to Siemens A G, Munich, Germany, a mobile or portable control and monitoring unit is described for use in a radiology department. This represents an improvement over the formerly known stationary control units that were fixedly built-in or constituted an inseparable part of the radiographic system itself.
According to column 2, lines 66-67, of this patent, such an apparatus can also be used to control the radiographic process and processing process.
According to column 3, lines 64-67, of this patent, both said portable monitor unit and the digital DR panel can be equipped with a wireless connection for exchange of data.
According to column 3, lines 42-44, the mobile control unit can be equipped with image processing software for post-editing the radiographic images which have been received from the digital DR panel.
The above-described wireless communication unit allows to also connect such a mobile control unit to databases, such as a Picture Archiving and Communications System (PACS), as well as to an in-hospital Radiological Information System (RIS) (column 3, lines 58-63, and claim 1, column 4, lines 40-41).
However, the device as described herein is intended to smoothly perform a specific remote controlled radiograph for a patient from such a unit. The functionality as incorporated in a fixed control unit in the prior art, as described in FIG. 1 of this patent, is incorporated herein, without further reference, in a corresponding portable control device.
The above-described drawbacks are thus not solved in any way by the mobile control apparatus proposed in this patent and there is neither any proposal nor any hint to adapt or use the device for such purposes.
In U.S. Pat. No. 8,325,875 B2, published on Dec. 4, 2012, assigned to General Electric Company, a mobile device for radiography is described. This mobile radiography device is equipped with a so-called ‘portable image processing system’ that controls the radiographic recording.
However, the term ‘portable’ is to be understood here as an apparatus which is mounted on a mobile radiography device or a radiography device which can be moved by a carriage. This apparatus also has the ability to wirelessly communicate with the DR Panel. A wireless communication possibility with a PACS/RIS/HIS is described in column 3, lines 37-43, of the specification and is also illustrated on the bottom of FIG. 2.
However, the above-mentioned problems aren't solved either by the embodiments described in said patent application.
Moreover, there is neither any proposal nor any hint to adapt or use the device as described in said patent for such purposes.
In U.S. Pat. No. 7,979,287 B2, published on Jul. 12, 2011, assigned to Konica Minolta Medical & Graphic, a radiographic image system is described, wherein a doctor uses a PDA (Personal Digital Assistant) during his ‘radiograph round’. This PDA has the so-called ‘radiographing order information’ stored in it, which prevents confusion between radiographic patients and radiographic image data.
This system is applied in so-called ‘large-scale’ systems that use computer radiography (CR), but also Digital DR panels (column 1, lines 44-52).
In this configuration, the above-mentioned radiographing order information is transmitted from a radiographic control apparatus to the PDA. According to FIG. 1(b), the PDA is connected to the radiographic control apparatus via a ‘cradle’, indicated as element 10 a/b. In column 29, lines 28-35, the function of this PDA is explained. The PDA receives the radiographing order information from the connected control apparatus via said cradle and to visualize it to the radiographer.
The above-described drawbacks are thus not solved in any way by the mobile control apparatus proposed in said patent and there is neither any proposal nor any hint to adapt or use the device for such purposes.